Cuomo Defends Housing Governor Says Yonkers Residents Are Confused

September 2, 1988|The New York Times

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Saying that many Yonkers, N.Y., residents were confused about a court-ordered housing desegregation plan, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo on Thursday blamed misunderstanding for the opposition that has blocked the plan.

``I don`t think that the people of Yonkers have a clear impression, an accurate impression of where the housing would be, what the population would be like,`` Cuomo said during a plane trip to Albany from Virginia, where he had delivered a speech to law-enforcement officials.

The governor said that clearing up misunderstandings about the plan would pave the way for its acceptance. ``People will wonder why they ever opposed it,`` he said.

People involved in the controversy, however, said they thought the governor misunderstood the roots of the opposition.

Michael Sussman, a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which brought the case that led to the housing plan, said he thought that any misunderstanding about the plan was the result, rather than the cause, of the opposition.

``The plan has been intentionally distorted,`` he said. ``People are confused because they want to be.``

Cuomo`s remarks came one day before fines on the city of Yonkers and four of its councilmen for blocking the plan are scheduled to be reimposed barring a decision by the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the case.

The governor has said that if the Supreme Court does not hear the appeal, the fines are reimposed and the councilmen continue to block the plan, he will start removal proceedings against them as early as the beginning of next week.

On Thursday, Cuomo, who has called implementing the housing plan the highest priority, but has refused to discuss possible plans for doing so while the case is under appeal, said that if by today the Supreme Court had not indicated it would hear the councilmen`s case, ``you`re free of any strictures of this thing being in court.``

On Aug. 26, a federal appeals court upheld a contempt-of-court ruling against four Yonkers councilmen and also upheld the fines that had been issued on the city and the councilmen for failing to enact the housing plan.

The appeals court gave the councilmen one week to obtain a decision from the Supreme Court on whether the fines, which have been suspended for more than three weeks, should continue to be suspended while the court decides whether to hear an appeal of the case. If the Supreme Court does not extend the suspension, the fines -- $500 a day for the councilmen and an amount that doubles each day for the city -- are scheduled to recommence today. The councilmen will be subject to jail starting on Sunday.